Archived (and occasionally updated) blog of filmmaker Michael Kang

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Ten Things You Should Know About McCain

For all the coverage this week of Senator John McCain’s background,
there are some important things you won’t learn about him from the TV
networks. His carefully crafted positive image relies on people not
knowing this stuff—and you might be surprised by some of it.

Please check out the list below, and then forward it to your
friends, family, and coworkers. We can’t rely on the media to tell
folks about the real John McCain—but if we all pass this along, we can
reach as many people as CNN Headline News does on a good night.

Click here to tell us how many people you can pass it on to—and to see our progress nationally:

John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday
in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has
“evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

According
to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and
China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make
Cheney look like Gandhi.”2

His reputation is
built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to
ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that
ban.3

McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”4

The
Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress
for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last
year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.5

He’s
one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The
Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet
McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing
foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.6

Many
of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be
commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his
being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s
hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”7

McCain
talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager
and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group
Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his
campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent
years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley,
believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls
a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing
preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s
punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the
Antichrist” and a “false cult.”9

He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to
be. Please help get the word out—forward this email to your personal
network. And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn’s work to get
the truth out about John McCain, sign up here:

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This guy gives soldiers the “willies”….never a good thing in a time of war, regardless of how you feel about it. He served several years in a violent POW camp in Vietnam, a perfect place to develop a great case of the old PTSD. Not the man any of us should want to be carrying the football.